Airy Thatched Vietnamese Coffee Shop is Made From Salvaged Wood and Local Materials

Vietnamese architecture firm a21 studio recently transformed a giant stockpile of scrap wood into Salvaged Ring, an airy and spacious coffee shop located in the countryside of Nha Trang. The client and owner, who had worked as a local carpenter, provided the wood to the architects in hopes of “giving another life" to the salvaged materials. In addition to scrap wood, the finished structure was also built with locally sourced rocks, coconut leaves, and other materials to help the building blend in with the local village architecture.

Built along the side of a highway, the Salvaged Ring coffee shop features a curved thatch roof that connects the roadway with the riverbank. The sloped roof helps soften the appearance of the building in the landscape and creates a visual connection between the different elevations. Within the airy structure, a collection of tables and chairs ring around a teardrop-shaped garden located at the center of building.

To ensure that no new trees would be cut down during construction, the architects maximized the use of the available scrap wood. Smaller pieces of the wood, for instance, were used as louvers to mitigate solar heat gain or used to create decorative patterns on the walls. Openings throughout the building provide natural ventilation and create an interesting play of light and shadow. The architects fitted the locally sourced building material together with traditional mortise and tenon techniques.